Whoa! Our trip Bogotá was beautiful. So intense, dynamic and delicious, and as always, fleetingly short.

I went with Antibalas to perform at Rock al Parque, a three-day (FREE!!) festival produced/funded by the city of Bogotá, featuring three stages, probably 100 or so regional, national and international bands, and over 300,000 people coming through.

It was so much fun but not without its challenges. Each band only had 50 minutes to perform--we're just getting warmed up and into our third or fourth song by then. Bogotá is also (8,660 feet) above sea level. The altitude was no joke when it came to singing and blowing air through a horn. The cold weather (55F) was not ideal for tropical music but nonetheless it was a jam and a privilege to rock for such a great audience.

Highlights:

Seeing Javier Bonilla and his group present Afro-Colombian music at Bar El Chaman. Arepas, of course, and lots of good coffee. Some delicious vanilla-steeped rum at bar Matik Matik with insane vinyl DJS, hanging out with one of my favorite bands--La 33-- at the birthday of Santi, the pianist, meeting master quena/flautist Fabian Triana and receiving a beautiful quena as a gift along with his music, digging for second hand vinyl in the flea markets thanks to tips from Quantic.

Antibalas is celebrating our 20th year as a band and making a musical pilgrimage to Lagos, Nigeria this December. We just launched a Kickstarter project to put together funds film our trip so we can share it with you. We have until August 11 to raise $50,000.

About 15 years ago I was passing through Austin Texas on my way back from México. My man Adrian Quesada introduced me to musician (and at that time grad student) Alex Chávez. I moved to Austin and lived there for several years, and got to collaborate on a few occasions with Alex and the group MITOTE.

The years went by...Alex earned a Ph.D and is now a professor at Notre Dame and a few years back got an exciting new project called Dos Santos up and running out of Chicago.

Last fall, while on tour with Antibalas, we linked up again and recorded two songs for the new Dos Santos album. The session was a trip: we had very little time in between soundcheck and the gig, so they built an impromptu recording studio across the street from Thalia Hall at 606 Records. Amidst the bins of vinyl and sips of very good tequila, the four of us--Jordan McLean and Eric Biondo (trumpets), Morgan Price (tenor sax) and myself (baritone sax) knocked out the two songs with great charts by Nick Mazzarella.

Thanks to Dos Santos for inviting the Antibalas horns to be a part of this beautiful work.

At the end of 2016, Angelique Kidjo asked me to compose and prepare horn arrangements for "Crosseyed and Painless" by Talking Heads.

I had grown up in the late 70s and early 80s listening to Talking Heads (thanks, MOM!!), recorded with David Byrne and St. Vincent a few years ago, and then served as the musical director for "The Music of David Byrne and Talking Heads" at Carnegie Hall in 2015, with Antibalas as the house band.

Little did I know that this would turn into doing horn arrangements for the entirety of Remain in Light, recording on the album with producer Jeff Bhasker, and touring the country and the world with Angelique, her band, amazing guest musicians (including David Byrne and Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, Nona Hendryx of Labelle, Lionel Loueke, keyboardists Ray Angry and Jason Lindner), and of course, my brothers from the Antibalas horns.

We just finished up a run of shows on the West Coast, and the project will continue to travel the world and beyond after the release of the album on June 8, 2018.

Live at the Theatre at Ace Hotel, Downtown LA. 5/5/2018. Photo: Oz McGuire

For those who got a chance to see the show, THANK YOU!! For those who haven't, brace yourselves! It is powerful and poetic.

Putting aside for a moment the strangeness of being on a massive floating city and fraught politics of global capitalism inherent in pretty much everything we do, Jamcruise 16 was amazing and along with going to Cuba and Benin, probably the richest musical experiences of my life.

Five days, nights and morning of performing, listening, collaborating and creating with some of my most favorite and esteemed musicians, people I listened to and adored well before I ever imagined myself playing music: Maceo Parker, George Porter if the Meters, Steel Pulse, John Scofield, to make just a few.

I am truly grateful to have been a part of this and in awe of the tremendous amount of work it took to put together such a magical event. It was transformational and I want to see this happen again and that far more people- musicians and fans can experience this.

I am fascinated by the concept of modifying the concept of a cruise ship into something more sustainable. How could it run with a zero carbon footprint, with equitable labor practices, cooperative ownership, healthier connections with the people in the different port cities to build systems which promote economic self determination and cultural understanding and appreciation.

The cruise ships are sophisticated, well oiled machines and I wonder how much of this is possible only because of all the social and environmental costs and externalities that are hidden from us. Having several friends from Nicaragua who have spent decades working on and off ship, it is a mixed bag. It does offer new possibilities, relationships and income not possible at home. At the same time, the work is intense and demanding and full of assaults to ones dignity. And the price of being separated from ones family and community for periods of nine months at a time over several years.

All that to say that in addition to my gratitude to the people who organized the event, I am even deeper indebted to the people on the ship grinding tirelessly to create a space for other people to experience such an intensely joyful event. Til next time.

On March 30, Daptone Records will release the new album by Orquesta Akokán. It is among my favorite albums of the past few years--so much flavor, amazing arrangements and creative orchestration. Read more about them here at NPR program alt.Latino.

I was honored to have been asked to write the liner notes for the, which I'm including here:

Listening to the new LP by Orquesta Akokán, you can't help but feel the spirits of Cuba's musical giants radiating from the speakers. But honoring and caring for these spirits is not easy work, nor is it a task to be left solely to one generation. It is a collaboration of young and old; The elders know the traditions, the gestures, the incantations, but it is the younger generation that have the duty to learn, the strength to carry on, and the fire and soul to make new songs for new spirits.

In November of 2016, Michael Eckroth traveled to the hallowed Areito studios in Centro Habana with a stack of charts tucked under his arm. Arriving in the cavernous wood-paneled live room, he took stock of the players assembled by producer Jacob Plasse: a dozen or so of Cuba’s most ferocious and pedigreed wind and rhythm players from storied groups including Irakere and Los Van Van, the sensational veteran vocalist José “Pepito” Gómez, and a handful of seasoned young New York Latin music freaks. These musicians would transform his charts into the living, breathing document you’re holding in your hands.

An arpeggio tumbles sweetly down the keys of the piano, and the set bursts forth en masse with exclamatory trumpet blasts, introducing saxophones that immediately establish themselves as the center of a rhythm section. The arrangements carry the exquisite beauty, pathos, and playfulness of the renowned dance orchestras of the 1940s and 1950s who had recorded in this very room, evoking the ghosts of Arsenio Rodriguez, Perez Prado, and Beny Moré. And the robust, time-tested musical architectures of son cubano and mambo are present and skillfully honored through all nine of these original compositions. The melodious tres cubano, the swinging tumbao of the congas, the tight blend of vocal harmonies — they’re all there. Yet there’s something unequivocally fresh — saxophone sections playing montunos where you’d imagine a piano, an angelic, swinging flute you’d expect in a charanga recording, sones — vocal improvisations that have the seasoned flow and cadence of mid 1970s “salsa dura” singers, and of course, the appearance of the inimitable César “Pupy” Pedroso on piano. Somehow this synthesis of musical grammar and compositional styles, of Havana and New York, of old and new, makes perfect sense.

Akokán is a Yoruba word used by Cubans to mean “from the heart” or “soul”, so it comes as no surprise that a recording like this would find its way back to Brooklyn’s Daptone Records. For nearly a generation, the venerable label has brought us soulful music in a myriad of styles, made in the present, but with all the craft and flavor of the classic recordings of the past. In doing so Daptone has enshrined both the genres it honors as well as artists creating new works in the universal canon of dance music. It’s a perfect kitchen from which to serve this captivating baile between old and new — una sopa levantamuertos (soup to raise the dead), prepared with rhythm, with care, and above all, con akokán.

this year has gone by real fast. I feel like I haven’t done anything. What do I remember ?

new Antibalas management transition

the Anti Ball and Women’s March in Washington DC

Denver with Antibalas and Galactic and getting to visit Tia Susi and Tío Paco for the first time in 15 or so years

the Aretha Franklin tribute at Carnegie Hall with Antibalas

a working vacation to LA, visiting friends and recording with Jeff Bhasker for the Angelique Kidjo Remain in Light album

playing two shows with Antibalas in Seattle on my birthday

performing in Asheville at the LEaf festival, seeing Plena Libre and Lee Fields and visiting an old friend and eating enchiladas

the Billie Holiday tribute at the Apollo Theater

performing Remain in Light at Carnegie Hall with Angelique Kidjo

a friends wedding in Fort Lauderdale

having a pretty good tomato and pepper harvest and lots of wildflowers

playing in Salt Lake City with Antibalas and Kamasi Washington and eating some good mole

a writing retreat at my studio / home with the entire Antibalas band

seeing a bunch of family at my cousins wedding in Philadelphia

Visiting Bend Oregon and catching up with my uncle and swimming in the Deschutes River and then playing a rough and harrowing show at the Oregon Eclipse Festival

performing at a Hollywood wedding in Ibiza

Playing four shows in Tokyo, waking up at 5 am to go to a fish market

recording some new music in Austin with Adrian Quesada and the Ocote Soul Sounds squad

driving all over North America with Antibalas performing songs from our new album Where The Gods Are in Peace

driving to Utopia Festival and swimming and jumping off a rope swing with the band in a creek outside the house we stayed in

being stuck in traffic outside Austin in a van with the band when we got the news of Charles Bradley’s death

seeing some old friends and mentors in Oakland and performing two shows at the Parish

perfoming a duo doing improvised music and TVOTR songs with Tunde Adebimpe at a beautiful home overlooking the Los Angeles skyline

an artist retreat with the Come to Life collective on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia

spending Thanksgiving with good friends and hanging big acoustic curtains in the studio

a trip to Houston to perform at the Menil Collection with Angelique and Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads, DJing at the Flat with DJ Sun, visiting old friends

another trip to Salt Spring to record a record with Arouna Diarra and Biko Casini

a trip to Costa Rica to visit family and friends and do an impromptu salon show with Masauko Chipembere and Roberto Roque in San Jose

spending Christmas Eve and day with my Dad, stepmom, brothers sisters nieces nephews aunts uncles and cousins in Philadelphia and watching the little kids overdose on sugar, fun and gifts while the grown ups catch up and turn up

this is was a very full, fast year with a lot of blessings and a lot of tribulations which I’ll spare you. when I look, back it is the visits with family, friends and good meals (mostly involving tortillas) and making good music that I most treasure. I am grateful for all the kind, charming, hilarious, talented and visionary people in my life. 2018 - more of all that!

The fall leg of the Antibalas tour is over. It was exhilarating and exhausting. We ran through the midwest, Texas, Japan, California. After that I went up to British Columbia for a retreat with fellow musicians and folks from Guayaki to brainstorm and collaborate.

I'm on my way to Houston this weekend for another Remain in Light performance with Angelique Kidjo and company at the Menil Collection, one of my favorite art museums in the world.

I'm also doing DJ sets at the Flat on Friday and again on Sunday afternoon.

What else...lots of work building out a studio, writing new songs, home improvement, Thanksgiving cooking, spending time with family, learning some new tricks...

A while back in Paris one thing led to another and I found myself in the studio with my elder and old friend Oghene Kologbo, guitarist of Fela Anikulapo Kuti's Afrika 70 band and performer on so many of the classic recordings.

Kologbo's solo album "Africa is the Future" is finally out via the ParisDJs label. They've just revealed the fourth track from the album "You No Lie" featuring Ghanaian funk/highlife legend Pat Thomas and me on flute.

Besides Antibalas stuff I have been doing a lot of writing and recording for the next Ocote Soul Sounds album.

In June I went to perform at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee with Angelique Kidjo's Remain in Light project. It was hot, muggy, and intense. U2's bassist Adam Clayton was there on the side of the stage digging the show. This was a big nerd moment for me as the first concert I attended was the U2 Joshua Tree Tour at JFK Stadium, Philly in 1987. (That's Adam of U2 front left, Angélique Kidjo center stage and me on the far right with the big saxophone).

Last week I was at Studio G in Brooklyn with Lyrics Born, the Antibalas horns, and Grammy nominated producer Joel Hamilton recording a Lyrics Born's "Don't Change," for a special livestreamed session using the amazing gear that Universal Audio makes. You can watch the whole session below:

A few weeks before that I was at Good Child Studios in Brooklyn working with producer Lawson White and Balún, an amazing electro-acoustic band from Puerto Rico. They wrote a beautiful song that featured the Antibalas horns.

When I'm not driving or sitting in a van on the highway, I have been doing lots of vegetable gardening--tomatos, kale, peppers, salad greens, eggplant, herbs, flowers, apples) (pics forthcoming) and building out my studio on the side of a mountain in Appalachian Pennsylvania.

I'm honored to play at Carnegie Hall for the sixth time in my career, this Friday with Angelique Kidjo, her band, and the Antibalas horns, doing a radical reinterpretation of the classic Talking Heads "Remain In Light" album.

I will be playing flute and baritone saxophone and did a lot of the writing/arranging of the horn parts that you'll hear onstage and on the album of the same name.

"Garden of the Peaceful Dragon" (dir. Daniel Peddle, prod/editing Karim Lopez) premieres at the Harlem International Film Festival in Harlem, NYC on May 4. I did some original music for the film and contributed some recordings by Ocote Soul Sounds. I can't say enough about the magic and the spirit of this film...the protagonist is one of a kind.

"Opening Night, Thursday, May 4, marks the debut of Daniel Peddle’s GARDEN OF THE PEACEFUL DRAGON, which profiles Burley Luvell Benford III, an elderly African-American veteran who occupies an abandoned piece of government property by the beach in Kauai, Hawaii. After being discharged from the Marines, Benford became one of the first employees of IBM and neighbor to Timothy Leary.

A single acid trip changed his life over-night. Ditching his “suit,” he moved to San Francisco where he fell in with the Beat Poets and witnessed the birth of The Grateful Dead. Legendary music promoter Bill Graham hired him to be a bodyguard for his artists and he spent the better part of a decade jet-setting and hobnobbing with stars.

Looking for another dramatic change of lifestyle, he repaired a schooner and sailed it all the way to Hawaii. Three divorces and four children later, we find Luvell homeless, living out of his pick-up truck on the beach. A man whose incredible life story may have been lost to time is vividly rediscovered in this final chapter of his life.

Preceding the screening of GARDEN OF THE PEACEFUL DRAGON will be the U.S. Premiere of Anneta Lauffer’s short film, AFRO PUNK GIRL, and Eileen Byrne’s short film IRIDESCENCE.

I was blessed with the role of musical director (and flutist/baritone saxophonist) for this show at Carnegie Hall last Monday, putting together charts and arrangements for Antibalas, the ace house band for 18 of the 22 songs performed onstage that evening, among them:

Living Colour "Rock Steady"

Kenny Loggins "Until you come back to me"

Melissa Etheridge "I Never Loved a Man"

Ceelo Green "The Night Time is the Right Time"

Taj Mahal and Deva Mahal "Chain of Fools"

Ledisi "Daydreaming"

Ruthie Foster "Natural Woman"

Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave) "Don't Play That Song"

Don Bryant (Hi Records songwriter/singer) "Drown in My Own Tears"

Bettye Lavette "Ain't No Way

G-Love "Think"

Todd Rundgren "Since You've Been Gone"

Sarah Dash (of Labelle) "Dr. Feelgood"

Naomi Shelton "A Change is Gonna Come"

Little Kids Rock "Respect"

Rodney Crowell "The Weight"

Antibalas "Who's Zoomin' Who"

Full ensemble with Living Colour: "Respect" (Reprise

Here are some of photos collected from the roving eyes of the Internet.